A Friendship is a Kind of Magic

The Ponyville library is unusual. Unlike other libraries it is a living golden oak tree. To Twilight this oddity is a welcome reprieve from conversing with... Whatever it is that Pinkamena is.

Twilight recovers her courage and knocks on the dutch door.

From inside is heard a muffled reply along the lines of “Maker dammit!” and shortly thereafter a rumble of what can only be a large number of books falling to the floor. Then, the sound of hooves on floor and the upper section of the door opens.

Twilight is met by a grey stallion in a collar and tie, with the hospitable greeting of “What do you want?”

“If this is the Ponyville library, then I am your new intern.”

“Oh... Interns? That’s new. ”

Twilight eyes him suspiciously. “Are you a librarian?”

“Of course I am. Steel Wright. Don’t just stand out there gawking, come in,” he says and opens the lower portion of the door.

“So... An intern you say?”

“My name is Twilight Sparkle, I have been sent here with recommendation by my mentor. I have a letter detailing it, in case the paperwork is not in order?”

“Oh the paperwork is more or less in order, can I see that letter?”

Twilight almost rolls her eyes and pulls the scroll from her saddlebag.

Steel takes it and skims it, muttering to himself as he reads: “Princess blah blah intern blah lodging blah proficient blah blah, yeah it looks about right.”

“About right?”

“Yeah, welcome to the Ponyville Library, Intern Sparkle,” Steel says and gestures towards the interior of...

This is a joke, right?

By all reasonable measures of library-ness known to Twilight Sparkle, this is not a library. It is a pile of books, loosely organized in shelves.

“Okay, no.”

“Excuse me?” Steel says slightly confounded.

“This isn’t a library, I must have the wrong building. Sorry for the intrusion, have a good day,” Twilight says and turns to leave.

“Wait a minute, I can assure you this is a library!”

Twilight sighs a deep, frustrated, well grounded sigh. With torturously slow movements she turns back.

I am going to regret this so much.

Forcing a bit of pep, she chippers: “Okay Mr. Wright, give me the tour?”

“You haven’t had a loaner in six months! Why?”

“They are a hassle. Always with the loaning and requesting and delivering. It’s a vicious cycle.”

“Wha-. Why-. Whu-,” is all Twilight can muster in response. “And- and the shelves are all disorganized!”

“Yeah, it discourages browsing.”

Twilight lets out an exasperated howl of rage.

The tour has revealed that everything is a mess. The paperwork is overdue from before the previous mayor, literally no book is where it is supposed to be, a good sixth of the books in the inventory are missing and a good eight of the books on the shelves are not listed in the inventory.

The only upside is that the living quarters joined to the library are vacant, even if they have been used for storage. Twilight shudders at the thought of what this oaf might have done to them had he lived there.

Spike inexplicably is eating a tub of popcorn, merrily watching Twilights tantrum.

“How do you even manage to buck up this bad? Are you the Mayor’s cousin or something?” — on reflection Twilight realises this is a remarkably good hypothesis — “It is like you are doing the opposite of what you are supposed to, and you are doing it on the government payroll! I swear to Maker everypony in this town are Cuh-razy!”

“Now, now, Ms. Sparkle. If you are intent on having that attitude, I might as well fire you.”

“No. No. No-no. Nope. Listen Mr. Wright; In case you missed it, that letter I handed to you detailed my status as pupil and protegé of Her Royal Highness Princess Celestia of Equestria. If you don’t stop treating me like your inferior I will have you fired.”

“You can’t. Mayor Mare is the only one with the ability to fire me.”

“Oh. In that case I’ll be right back. Spike, we’re leaving.”

“Excuse me?”

Twilight turns so fast her tail almost whips Steel in the face, and proceeds to walk out the door in a brisk trot.

Outside the library Spike dares a question: “So, what are you going to do now?”

“I am going to get Ponyville a proper librarian. Hop up, I need you to take a letter while I walk.”

Mayor Mare has seen several strange things in her life, if not years of office. She has been vaguely aware of how bad the local library has been, and how long it has been so.

When Mayor Mare assigned her second cousin Steel Wright, to run it, she was effectively giving it up as a lost cause, as it had been considered so for almost twenty years.

Admittedly Wright didn’t make it better.

But today she is witnessing the most compelling policy change request... Or is it a job interview? Maybe a hostile government takeover? Whatever it is, the young mare presenting it is compelling and loquacious like none other.

“...And not to make threats, Mayor Mare, but I will remind you that I am pupil and protegé of Her Royal Highness Princess Celestia. If you do not take into consideration my requests, I will have to take my plea to instances above your township. It might even come to nepotism lawsuits,” Twilight finishes, gesturing to the four relevant documents of law she had Raven send her.

“Well, my good Twilight Sparkle. You’re hired.”

Twilight is left somewhat at a loss of words by this conversational development. “I’m what?”

“It is obvious to see that you wish to have Wright fired as Head Librarian and have yourself instated in his stead. I didn’t get this far in county politics without being able to read ponies.”

“No-no, no. No. I’m just an intern. A concerned citizen. I just want a working library and...”

Mayor Mare cuts her off: “It’s either you or him. I insist.”

Twilight considers this hole she has dug herself into, and wonders how not to dig herself any deeper.

Oh horseapples.

Dear Princess Celestia

I am afraid I might have compromised your plan to have me intern in the ponyville library. As of my first day of employment I have been promoted* to head librarian.

Please advice.

Your faithful student Twilight Sparkle.

* or rather, marooned.

Twilight sets the quill in the inkwell and rolls up the scroll.

“Spike?” She calls out. No answer. “Spiiiike?”

It is a fact of Twilight’s existence that she favours very solitary experiences: reading, writing, thinking, researching. It is a fact of Spike’s existence that he does not favor idly waiting about for Twilight to finish doing whatever she was doing in the privacy of her own head.

In other words, Spike has wandered off somewhere and Twilight vaguely recalls hearing the door go.

Situations like this are not alarming, if anything Spike is a legal minor and can therefore not be held accountable for his actions — his legal guardian being Twilight can, but any damages he causes can be covered by her emergency budget provided by the Princess – a rather sizable sum.

As for Spike getting into danger — he is covered in scales hard as steel, has sharp and retractable claws, a maw full of pointy teeth with jaw strength to crush crystals, and can breathe fire.

The trouble is that Twilight needs him for express mail. After two solid hours of trying to measure the size of the work cut out for her in organizing the library — yes, she organized her plan to organize the library — she is rather tired.

She takes to the door and prays to the Maker and Celestia that she not run into Pinkamena again.

Spike is enjoying a breather and some sun on the doorstep of the library. He likes looking at the passersby.

His little bubble of small-town zen is broken by a female falsetto “Oh my, a Baby Dragon!”

Spike looks up to see a butter-yellow pegasus mare fawning over him. “Can I help you?”

“Oh you talk! I didn’t know dragons could talk!”

“I can. I’m not really a baby, just an adolescent.”

“Oh I am terribly sorry Mr. dragon. I didn’t mean to offend.”

To Spike’s surprise she immediately folds in on herself, hiding behind her mane.

“Oh, no, i’ts— it’s fine. It’s a common mistake, I still have some puppy fat, and really, adult dragons are kinda huge compared to me.”

“I must admit I don’t know much about dragons,” she says meekly.

There is a brief awkward silence. Spike breaks it.

“We haven’t even been introduced, that was rude of me, I’m Spike!” He reaches out a claw in greeting.

The mare offers him a wingtip. “I’m Fluttershy, it’s nice to meet you Spike.”

“Nice to meet you too.”

Spike has never said that meaning it so genuinely. Fluttershy is nice. It is like she has a radiance of well-being and safety — when she is not curling up into a ball at least.

His train of thought is broken by his stomach rumbling. Haven’t had lunch — he looks at the position of the sun — and it is mid afternoon already.

“Are you hungry?” Fluttershy ventures.

“Well, yeah. I think we forgot to eat lunch. My charge is sort of an airhead when it comes to remembering such things.”

“This simply will not do, please — can I invite you for some afternoon tea?”

“That would be nice, thank you?”

“If it is okay, can you tell me more about being a dragon while we eat?”

“Yeah, sure. What do you want to know?”

“Absolutely everything!”

Spike stands up — which does not add to his height compared to sitting on the doorstep — and makes to follow Fluttershy.

Three hours or so later, a voice can be heard from inside the library, calling out “Spiiiike?”

It is both very easy and very hard to find a strange pedestrian in Ponyville. It is very easy in that strange pedestrians are few and far between — Spike is in all probability the only dragon whelp in a hundred kilometers — but it is also very hard because ponies in the street tend to ignore just that.

Okay, asking those last three ponies got me nowhere. I could try a tracking spell, but frankly I am exhausted already... I’m hungry. We forgot lunch! Spike has probably wandered off to find a bite to eat.

Twilight would rather not have to talk down another victim of Spike’s tendency to dine and dash, and sets off for... Wait a second, this is something she can ask a bystander for.

Twilight approaches a grey stallion with three lucky clovers for a cutiemark. “Hello? I’m new in town, I was wondering where is a good place to get a spot of afternoon tea?”

“I’d recommend either Sugarcube Corner for their pastries, but Horte Cuisine’s for actual lunch. They are both up by the town hall plaza, you can’t miss them. Good luck!”

“Thank you sir,” Twilight replies and sets in a brisk trot for the other side of town.

Oh I am so not fit to raise a kid.

She reaches the upper part of town in a few minutes. What that stallion said is entirely true: you really can’t miss either of the dining establishments.

Spike has a terrible sweet tooth. He’d go for pastries.

As Twilight approaches sugarcube corner she spots a certain pink pony — horror, shock, gasp, scream, faint — behind the counter inside the shop.

Maybe go check the restaurent first.

The restaurant, from the outside seems a rather nice place. It is clearly run by a pony with style and sensibility. Twilight enters into a comparably furnished interior, pleasant colours, quality furniture, and a well stocked bar which seems to be closed for the time being.

In a corner by one of the garden-facing windows, she finds Spike, engrossed in conversation — strike that, monologue — with a demure pegasus mare.

“Spike!”

“Hello Twi. Fluttershy, this is Twilight Sparkle, Twilight, Fluttershy.”

“My pleasure,” Fluttershy says meekly.

“Thank you for looking after Spike, I maybe forgot lunchtime,” Twilight says, “mind if I join you?”

“No, not at all, Ms. Sparkle, and he is an very nice adolescent dragon.”

“I have been of my very best behaviour Twilight.”

“That’s good to hear —” a waiter comes by and hands twilight a menu “— do I owe you for the meal or anything?”

“Oh, no, it’s fine.”

Twilight turns to the waiter and orders the salad of the day with a side of hayfries.

“So, as I was saying, we arrived this morning,” Spike continues, “well, I was asleep for some of it, Twilight, did anything interesting happen on the way to the library?”

“Yeah, um I think —” Twilight lovers her voice “— I think I met the local loon.”

“Oh you met Pinkie Pie?” Fluttershy gives her a look of compassion, but quickly reverts to a smile. “Pinkie Pie is pretty special, but she is a good friend once you get to know her.”

“I think I might belay making that acquaintance for at least a few weeks,” Twilight says, rubbing her temple.

“Anyway, when we got to the library, it was a total mess.” — Fluttershy nods in agreement — “Twilight is a bit of a book nut, and really likes libraries, so within five minutes she is basically screaming at the head librarian.”

Fluttershy titters. Twilight notes that Fluttershy is a wonderful presence, after a hard day like today, she is suddenly at ease.

“And then this guy is like “Only the Mayor can fire me, hurr!” and then Twilight just marches out of there and directly over to the mayors office, where she rants for like, seven minutes at the mayor herself. And you know what the first thing the mayor says is?”

“Oh do tell.”

“She looks directly at Twilight and says “You’re hired!” —” Spike and Fluttershy laugh heartily.

“I guess it is kinda funny,” Twilight says with a light chuckle.

“What a career gentlemare you are, Ms. Sparkle, from intern to head librarian in a day,” Fluttershy says with both jest and genuine admiration.

Come nightfall, Twilight, Spike and Fluttershy leave Horte’s. Conversation has been pleasant, food has been good — if a little on the dear side — and Spike has enjoyed himself.

Fluttershy is walking them to the library, a turn of events which was negotiated under much polite declining and polite reassurance and general misplaced humility.

As they turn the corner headed for the street with the library, Twilight mentally kicks herself for once again failing to remember base necessities: The living quarters adjacent to the library are still as mess.

Oh buck me.

Twilight turns to Fluttershy with the resignation of social surrender.

“Um... I just remembered that I had forgotten something in all this taking-over-the-library rush... I forgot to clean out the library apartment.”

“Oh, um. Do you think we can do it tonight?” Spike asks with some false hope.

“No. It is a solid days work at least,” Twilight says in quiet guilt. I am such a terrible pony.

“Um, oh... You can sleep over at my place. If you want to, I mean,” Fluttershy ventures meekly.

“But, we only just met and you already paid for a meal for spike and...” Twilight begins to protest.

“I, um, I am afraid I must insist Twilight. Please. If it is not too much trouble for you.”

“Too much trouble for us?” Twilight wonders briefly how the pegasus ever got such a backwards view of debts and favours, “Fluttershy, you have looked after Spike, fed him a meal, entertained us both and now you are offering to house us for the night, if anything, we are in your debt. Yes, I would really like for Spike and I to stay at your place, thank you so much.”

Fluttershy blushes slightly, “it’s this way,” she says and makes for Twilight and Spike to follow.